Gold Rush fever sparked Tybo boom

Advertisement

In 1869, rumors reached Belmont and Manhattan, two Nevada mining towns that were the roughes in the West, that prospectors were finding big gold nuggets in the gravelly wash up Hot Creek Canyon way. There was feverish excitement as every man who lost his shirt in Belmont and Manhattan began looking for transportation to the new strike.

But where in Hot Creek Canyon? Wagons carrying supplies brought news of the new gold field, but as to location, they only had the vaguest notion.

"Up the canyon somewhere," was the only information they could give. No, there were no roads, only Indian trails. But roads? Who needs roads?

Just the thought of all those gleaming nuggets could make an Indian trail look like a well-paved garden walk.

And so the stampede was on. In buckboards, on horseback, in creaking wagons and onfoot, they headed for the canyon as fast as they could get together a grubstake and pack their burros.

Walt Harral was on of the first to reach the new field. From a self-styled Indian Chief called Bazdo, he learned the location of the sporings and waterholes in the juniper-covered heights of the Hot Creek Range. Harral went ove the routes and found the springs just as old Chief Bazdo had described them. With energy stirred by thoughs of a golden bonanza, Harral began his search for the fbled nuggets. Weeks were spend clearing a road for his wagon, traces of which can still be seen.

By 1872, the gold camp of Typbo was in full swing, but instead of being the golden lode many had claimed, it was silver that actually raised the town into being. The silver ran 250 ounces to the one and one-half ounces of gold to the ton. Fantastically rich, it was not, although every now and then a rick pocket would turn up that would send the mining world ito a spin.

Several kilns were erected to keep an abundance of charcoal available for the busy smelters. With the forest of junipers neat at hand, the set-up was considered ideal. Furnaces and mills were operating at full capacity to serve the eight large mines.

Tybo seemed destined for great things. As long as oxidized ores were treated, all went well. Disaster occurred when sulphides came in at large tonnages. Operations became so difficult that one by one the mining companies closed down and boarded up the buildings. In 1878, Tybo Consolidated caeased operation and the city of Tybo was left to the elements.

Today there are huge piles of slag glittering in the sun. Weathered, gray shacks, a few brick foundations and a half-dozen houses, some still in good repair, a quaint schoolhouse and a multitude of untold stories are all that's left. To the best of my knowledge, the source of the gold nuggets that started the rush to Tybo never were located. One of the many surrounding canyons may still contain the pocket of glowing nuggets.

At an elevation of 6,700 feet, Tybo is a scenic relic of Nevada's golden yesteryears of mining.

Florine Lawlor is a native Las Vegan and a former writer for the Las Vegas Sun and Senior Press.